SPARE PARTS

Name: SPARE PARTS
Author: Rebecca Emberley
ISBN: 978-1-59643-723-4

by Rebecca Emberley ; illustrated by Ed Emberley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 3, 2015

Children aren’t really the natural audience for this heartfelt tale of second chances; save it for over-40s just starting...

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Robot love.

Because he can’t get his secondhand, gear-driven heart started one morning, lonely Rhoobart hobbles off on mismatched mechanical limbs to the Spare Parts Mart in fruitless hopes of finding a replacement. Eventually, hope gives way to despair, and he collapses: “His zipper lips chattered, / He rattled and clattered. / Now he was sure NOTHING mattered.” Enter Sweetart, “an energetic bit of metal / With just the right amount of tarnish,” who assures him that “you don’t need a new heart, you / just need a jump start!” So it proves, as sparks fly, and with Rhoobart’s heart thumping and rattling again, off they go together, singing a silly love song: “We’re all spare parts. / We’ve got secondhand hearts, / It’s true. / We go together like pickles and glue. / You stick to me, / I’ll stick to you.” Harmonizing with the brief narrative’s clanky rhymes, this plainly metaphorical encounter is set in a junkyard composed of jumbled masses of bent machinery, loose gears, and torn flat bits bearing obscure strings of numbers or battered words. Though likewise loose, the robotic figures are anthropomorphic enough for younger viewers to pick them out against the broken backdrop.

Children aren’t really the natural audience for this heartfelt tale of second chances; save it for over-40s just starting out again. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-59643-723-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Neal Porter/Roaring Brook

Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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FLATLAND
by David Sayre ; illustrated by Rebecca Emberley

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THE ITSY BITSY SPIDER
illustrated by Rebecca Emberley ; Ed Emberley ; developed by Little Bahalia Publishing

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THE CROCODILE AND THE SCORPION
by Ed Emberley ; illustrated by Rebecca Emberley

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)